Actually, have a look at Chinese traditional medicine. Food, even "normal" food rife with symbolism, has all kinds of (basically) alchemical properties. Not always on the like-affects-like principle either.

On that note, powdered dragon horn is probably an aphrodisiac, dragon jelly soup might be a sovereign cure for arthritis, and a dose of dragon fat ointment on the chest might protect children and the elderly from winter illnesses for a whole season per application. It would be WAY better than goose-grease for keeping cold-water divers warm, too.

I'm sure there's a medicinal dish made specifically from red dragon ear frills, you can't use any other part of the dragon for it. Muscle from the thigh might be good for one purpose, while from the rump, another. Eating roasted dragons feet bring good luck in financial enterprises, symbolizing the dragons inescapable grasp snatching up good opportunities.

Boil down its cartilage to make the worlds most terrifying aspic. With a whole pig suspended in it, symbolically consumed by the dragon. Less... picturesquely, the gelatin might end up more like synthetic rubber, making it potentially useful for power transmission in that airship your players are interested in.

Proportionally much thinner scales, as the creature wants to fly. Yes, it has supermuscles and magic providing lift, but the less we have to trick physics, the better. One day, physics might be in a position to get us back.

Heh. I have an aerodynamics calculation program I wrote a while back. Assuming a 200m wingspan and making a whole bunch of assumptions about lift and drag (I'm treating it as a 200m wingspan with an aspect ratio of 8 and a drag coefficient (aircraft-style) of 0.025,) with a maximum lift coefficient of 2), I get:
Stall: 45 m/s (100 mph); requires 56 MW
Loiter Speed (least power): 55 m/s (120 mph); requires 53 MW.
Cruise Speed (least energy/distance): 73 m/s (160 mph); requires 60 MW
Lift/Drag ratio: 15
Hover (non-stall, using a helicopter approximation): 120 MW; downdraft 18 m/s.

Actually, have a look at Chinese traditional medicine. Food, even "normal" food rife with symbolism, has all kinds of (basically) alchemical properties. Not always on the like-affects-like principle either.

Indeed, sir, I stand corrected. Forgive my occidentocentric assumptions! All your suggestions make good sense, although some seem more 'old home remedy' than 'industrial alchemy.'

"It's all in the scale-up," as an old PI of mine used to say...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruno

Boil down its cartilage to make the worlds most terrifying aspic. With a whole pig suspended in it, symbolically consumed by the dragon. Less... picturesquely, the gelatin might end up more like synthetic rubber, making it potentially useful for power transmission in that airship your players are interested in.

Dragon aspic with a whole roast boar inside it would be a POTENT dish. Great image...

In a more magical vein, I would suggest you use it for Flesh Golems. Aside from being (supernaturally) strong, they might have innate DR (tough muscle), high resistance to fire, or perhaps even generate tremendous heat during activity. Sounds like it's time to figure out what a DragonFlesh Golem template would look like...

Although our ideas weren't nearly as imaginative as some of the ones on this thread, a question like this came up once in a D&D campaign my wife and I once played it. It resulted in a story I like to call The Girl in the Dragonskin Bikini